The Superiority Complex of Light
by MiniCook
Summary: Link's confrontation with his Darker self in the Water Temple - what WOULD have transpired had there actually been any dialogue. Tell me what you think, keep going or trash it.


Link stepped as silently as he could through the ominous door, his boots rippling the thin layer of water that stretched across the ground. As the door swung shut behind him, Link heard the distinct metallic click of a lock sliding firmly into place.

"Well there goes plan 'B' for an escape route," Navi said in a hushed voice.

"We had a plan 'A' in the first place?" Link replied, his low voice mirroring the small fairy's. Navi just shrugged her tiny shoulders.

Link turned away from his glowing companion, looking around the room they had entered for the first time. Or rather, the lack-of-room.

Link stared in wonder as his eyes roamed about the great expanse, squinting as he tried to take what he was seeing. But that was just it – he wasn't seeing anything.

Thick, white mist – or was it fog, perhaps low cloud? – swirled about him in every direction, obscuring anything that may have been in the distance. He looked up, only to find that the sky was similarly blotted out by the blanket of white. Link turned back around, hoping that he could somehow pry the locked door back open and maybe find an alternate route. He didn't like this strange room. But he knew it was useless, even before he noticed that the door he had come through didn't seem to lead anywhere. It just stood by itself in the middle of this strange white plane, closed and uninviting. Puzzled, Link walked around behind it. The back of the door looked identical to the front, and when Link tried to open it, he found it was locked as well.

"Creepy..." Navi commented from her place near his shoulder, and Link shuddered slightly in agreement.

Taking a few steps forwards, the blue-clad Hylian managed to make out a vague shape about twenty metres in front of him. Deciding nothing else would reveal any clues as to what in Hyrule he was supposed to be doing, Link grasped the hilt of his sword firmly and strode towards the dark silhouette.

As Link drew nearer, the dark shape began to solidify, and Link was able to discern that it was a tall tree standing in the middle of a slightly raised island out of the water. Link turned to Navi when they stopped next to the tiny island, his confusion written all over his face. Navi arched an eyebrow at him, just as unsure as he was. However before she could voice her perplexity, something else caught her attention.

"Link! Look!"

The blonde Hylian turned his head to follow her gaze, sighing in relief as his eyes fell on their salvation – a second door. But his respite was short lived, as he realised with a sinking feeling that it was identical to the first in every way – lone, leading to nowhere, and locked. Link circled it in frustration, rattling on both door handles in annoyance before he gave up with a resigned huff. Stepping back away from the door, Link stared at the door, running a hand through his thick blonde bangs, careful not to knock his hat off.

That was when he heard it.

"So you're the Hero of Time, hmm? I have to say, I'm slightly disappointed."

A shiver ran down Link's spine as the voice reached his ears. Link knew he had heard that voice before, but it was as though the voice had been twisted, its owner perverted in such a way that Link couldn't quite place it. No, perhaps not perverted... but definitely changed.

Link spun around and shifted his weight, readying for an attack. His eyes scanned the room – plane – frantically, only too aware that his impeded visibility left him vulnerable. Link slowly stepped forward, sword raised high, ready to strike.

"Navi, you see anyone?" Link hissed at the fairy. He saw her shake her head out of the corner of his eye.

"No. But I can feel... something... be careful, Link."

Link didn't respond to the fairy's ambiguous warnings, his eyes still whipping back and forth in an attempt to find the source of the voice. Movement caught his attention immediately, but Link was surprised where it came from: the branches of the lone tree.

A black-booted foot dangled lazily from one of the lower, thicker branches as Link approached, its owner lazing comfortably against the trunk. Link crept closer, beginning to circle the tree and try to get a better look at his opponent without putting himself at a disadvantage. However the figure was all but obscured by the leaves of the tree, and Link didn't have a hope of seeing who it may have been.

The figure moved, and Link's knuckles grew uncomfortably tight around the hilt of his sword, but he did not relent. But the figure just seemed to be shifting into a more comfortable position, for its leg still swung idly by the branch.

"Do you believe that you are the _light_ of this world, Link?"

Link didn't show his surprise that the figure knew his name, but inwardly he was rattled. Finding his voice, Link finally managed to respond.

"Yes. I believe that I am the light of Hyrule. Especially now, now that there's so little light left."

Link found what he was saying to be corny, even if he was being truthful. But the figure's strange question had caught him off guard, and he really had no other response.

Despite this, the figure seemed to be satisfied with Link's answer, and Link was sure he could hear a smirk in the voice that seemed so very, very familiar as it spoke again.

"Light... it has a little bit of a superiority complex, don't you think?"

The figure took Link's silence as confusion – which was a pretty spot on assumption – and continued on.

"You see, Light thinks it travels faster than anything... but it is wrong. For no matter how fast light travels, it finds the darkness has always gotten there first, and is waiting for it..."

Without warning, the figure swooped down from its perch in the tree, landing deftly and gracefully at the base of its trunk. Instinctually, Link took a few steps back. And as he looked upon the now completely visible figure, it was all he could do to not retreat further.

Black boots sank slightly into the soft sand of the island, just as Link had suspected they would when he had first seen them. Dark leggings were tucked into those boots – leggings that Link was used to seeing a cream colour. The figure spun a dark-bladed sword in one black gloved hand; his shield too seemed to be made of the darkest of dark metals. Both were black mockeries of their usually light counterparts.

Finally, Link eyes fell on the blacker than black tunic that stretched across all too familiar shoulders, the similar black hat tilted at the same angle it always was. And then he saw the eyes – eyes that Link had expected to be a clear, sapphire blue, but instead were the epitome of crimson – no, blood – red.

"I've been waiting for you, _Link_..."

And as the figure spoke again, Link realised why the voice was so familiar – it was _his_ voice. Those were _his _weapons. And that was definitely _his_ face. Unmistakably and irrevocably, Link was looking at himself – a twisted, sinister form of himself, but still there was no mistaking it.

And without further ceremony, Dark Link attacked.


End file.
